Silver can budget rally build off

[Cuiken 221]

Quick update for anyone considering a TA02 build. My own TA02 is not 'in class' but it's still been an interesting car to run. It's a surprisingly decent chassis (given its age), the shocks are easily extended (I removed the V3 spacer and added a shock o-ring with the remaining V1 spacer) and the Calibra shell can be cut back (fairly dramatically) to work with a rally car. Leaves you with this:

 

Only issue I had with it was that the front bumper provides hee-haw protection, especially for the shell. Clearly nobody at Tamiya had embraced urethane bumpers back in the early '90s. So, I bodged in a urethane bumper as below and it fits great. Required a bit of dremmeling of the existing bumper but only took a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aerobert 1646]

@Cuiken I really like the look of your Rallye-Calibra. Pretty cool.

Over the past weeks I followed this thread and was permanently tempted to step into the build-off as I really would like to have a rallye car. Problem is that my RC budget is more than tight currently due to unknown energy costs for the near future. Even £200 or €225 from today's exchange rate were too much. But today I stumbled across an offer from RC Kleinkram which were too good to refuse. So I've ordered:

58625 Nissan GT-R Motul TT-02 kit for €74,90 (no ESC included)

Killerbody Subaru BRZ body set for €30,90 (as the GT-R body is not so much rallye)

2 pairs of Tamiya 50476 rally block tires plus inserts for €28,70

 

Overall €134,50. The GT-R body set will be sold directly so I guess I can subtract around €30 again. As I have a rallye cockpit, ESC, motor in my store I will not have to buy them. Also bearings should be there. Only the oil dampers may be needed, but I will have a closer look into the damper box. 

[Superluminal 3007]

It's Alive!!!!!!!

Just body to do now.

[Cuiken 221]

12 hours ago, Superluminal said:

It's Alive!!!!!!!

Just body to do now.

That looks ace! Build thread is very helpful too.

[Cuiken 221]

Sadly no RC fun for me this weekend.

I've been building secondary glazing units for the house instead which, it turns out, is my new least favourite DIY task.....

On the upside, my Datsun 240Z shell arrived and is absolutely stunning. Can't wait to get to work on it (Xmas project).

[Juhunio 5748]

Hurrah! My entry into this 'build-off' arrived today 😃. I put build off in inverted commas because, well....it's already built 😂

But it's absolutely immaculate, right down to the box and manual. I absolutely love how these older kits came with a colour postcard of the car in action 🥰

The body shell is perfect, no splits or cracks. A few of the stickers need a little bit of hairdryer support, but other than that it's mint

As is the chassis itself, which to all intents and purposes looks like it has never been run

The diffs turn nice and smoothly, everything else feels lock-tight, there's a silver-can included, so all in all I'm delighted 😃

I'm going to take it apart and rebuild it, just so that it qualifies as a 'build-off' and I can try and hoik the ground clearance a bit. I've got rally blocks, a receiver and a TBLE-02S in the garage, so all it will need is a servo

So, in terms of the finances (conscious of Bernie's @Cuiken's impeccably high standards for financial due-diligence)

• Purchase price including fees : 12,000 JPY / £78
• I then bought four other items and combined them with this for international shipping, with the intention of selling three of those items for a profit to offset shipping costs. Total package invoice 20,160 JPY / £130
• Total domestic and international shipping fees for all five items: 12065 JPY  / £78
• So total invoice plus shipping cost: £208. Call it £210

My intention is to sell the three makeweights for IRO £100 after eBay fees and shipping, which brings the cost down to £110. The other item in the package that I am keeping is two pairs of Mondeo Rims (50550) which cost 1,944 JPY / £13, which brings it down to just under £100

Let's call it an even £100 for the mint condition TA03-F Subaru Impreza, leaving plenty of headroom for a servo

How does Bernie like the sound of them apples? 

[Aerobert 1646]

That's a great find @Juhunio. If you currently try finding something like that on the standard sites here in Germany you will get something beaten up for that price. Yours looks gorgeous.

[Aerobert 1646]

I'm also starting building the TT-02 and almost managed to complete the chassis. Only minor steps to do like wiring and body posts.

Next will be trimming and masking of the body. Problem is that I'm not sure which livery to go at the moment. Have to search the internet for inspiration once more.

Budget wise I'm currently around 170€ but the original GT-R body is not sold now. 

Edit: Finished the chassis today including the cover. My wiring is a mess, but I like my electronics to be interchangeable so I don't cut any wires.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Aerobert

[technics 368]

Loving this thread! Motivating!

End of 2020  I started building rally themes on older TRF’s chassis I’ve accumulated over the years. I should start a thread to document and motivate the process. Focus does go heavily on the body shell itself but I’ve done some chassis modifications as well to help accommodate the needs more.

 

 

[Juhunio 5748]

On 10/8/2022 at 10:41 AM, Aerobert said:

That's a great find @Juhunio. If you currently try finding something like that on the standard sites here in Germany you will get something beaten up for that price. Yours looks gorgeous.

 

Cheers!

Your TT02 is looking good, I suspect that the chassis cover is going to be the best Hop Up of all 😃. I'm going to see if I can work something out for the TA03...

[alvinlwh 3179]

I think I had seen FF mentioned somewhere but don't recall an answer. If there is one, apologies. 

Just picked this up today, S$150 ~ £94.42. Can a FF-03 be made into a rally car easily without expansive mods/parts swap? 

If yes, this will be my second entry (still not gotten a MF-01X yet 😅). 

[Juhunio 5748]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:18 AM, Cuiken said:

Only issue I had with it was that the front bumper provides hee-haw protection, especially for the shell. Clearly nobody at Tamiya had embraced urethane bumpers back in the early '90s. So, I bodged in a urethane bumper as below and it fits great. Required a bit of dremmeling of the existing bumper but only took a few minutes.

 

 

Your TA02 bumper mod looks great 👍 FYI, Tamiya did release a urethane bumper set for the TA02, part number 53145. Pretty hard to find though...

Some cleverclogs has created a 3D printed version available from Shapeways 

[OoALEJOoO 1724]

Mailman came by today, delivered the rest of my entry. At the end decided to forego the TT-02 cover and go with better shocks. I will probably drive the car on parks over concrete/asphalt anyway. Still maybe I build my own cover out of spare plastic.

My final list:

Tamiya 58667 TT-02 Audi Quattro Kit - $114.90

FlySky GR3E Receiver - $6.62

JX DC6015 Servo - $10.49

Tamiya 54249 3x32mm Turnbuckle - $2.91

Tamiya 54247 3x23mm Turnbuckle - $2.91

Tamiya 54247 3x18mm Turnbuckle - $2.91

Tamiya 50875 5mm Ball Connector -$1.59

Heatsink 3Racing - $3.33

Tamiya 54491 Rally Cockpit - $13.31

Tamiya 53155 Low Friction Aluminum Damper (2) x2 - $25.19

Bearings - $9.99

HC Pinion - $4.50

Tamiya 53156 Hard Inner Sponge Touring - $2.19

3Racing High-Torque Servo Saver (3RAC-SHAMU) - $2.59

Screenprintdigital - Clarion Audi Quattro Stickers - $15.67

TOTAL (USD) - $219.09

TOTAL (Pound) - $195.94

The kit's included TBLE-04 ESC will be replaced by a HW1060 and the rally block tires by something more street-oriented.

The kit already arrived earlier this week and already managed to get the body painted  Sticker treatment and chassis build will be done over the weekend. I've already built several TT-02s so this one should be quick. I already had a rally cockpit on-hand so this got painted last week ahead of time. Teaser below!!

[Juhunio 5748]

1 hour ago, OoALEJOoO said:

I love that your driver looks like Benicio Del Toro 👍

[Pylon80 330]

4 hours ago, OoALEJOoO said:

At the end decided to forego the TT-02 cover

I have been running a TT-02 rally for a few months. I never fitted the cover as it was either back order or almost comically overpriced. What I did instead, that worked perfectly, was inspired by the XV-01 servo compartment. Instead of trying and failing to prevent rocks and pebbles and sand from getting in, I drilled generous holes in the chassis to let them out. I used a forstner bit in a drill press. Added holes from one run to the next until the debris problem was solved. Since we like talking budget on this here thread drilling holes is free 😘

[Tamiyastef 935]

56 minutes ago, Pylon80 said:

drilling holes

That might solve my TA03F's steering blockage problem. I solved it for now by getting myself an XV01 

[Pylon80 330]

12 minutes ago, Tamiyastef said:

That might solve my TA03F's steering blockage problem. I solved it for now by getting myself an XV01 

You also probably need to protect the belt from sucking in debris at the rear pulley? All this really depends on the surface you are running on obviously.

[OoALEJOoO 1724]

16 hours ago, Juhunio said:

I love that your driver looks like Benicio Del Toro 👍

Indeed! 

The actual pilot is Per Eklund:

and copilot Bjorn Cederberg:

Stayed late last night and was able to finish the body (fitted into another chassis):

[Juhunio 5748]

Stunning work as always @OoALEJOoO, it was worth the late night 😊

And I in no way meant to insult your likeness of the great Per Eklund 🙏 

[Tamiyastef 935]

14 hours ago, Pylon80 said:

You also probably need to protect the belt from sucking in debris at the rear pulley? All this really depends on the surface you are running on obviously.

For me it's mostly small rocks and pebbles. They get between the pulley and belt but don't get stuck there. They do get stuck between the steering assembly and the chassis blocking the steering very regularly. That really sucks the joy out of running this chassis while the handling feels really good and the sight of the car rallying around is just superb. 

[Juhunio 5748]

The bumper arrived today, so I now have everything I need to rebuild my TA03-F entry

Everything is nice and clean and ready to rebuild...

Current running budget total is £187.04, with one more item that came with it left to sell to offset some of that 🤞

[OoALEJOoO 1724]

Managed to finish the car after a marathon build on Saturday:

The chassis got together fairly straightforward. I must say those low-friction dampers are quite a treat, makes me wish Tamiya offered them in a different color instead of pink, but that's just nitpicking. Settled with a set of MST LTX Rally tires instead of the kit's rally blocks as it is intended for tarmac rally events. It would be great to mimic the tarmac stages at Spain, Japan and Germany of the Colin McRae 04 and 2005 video games!

For the moment just a pair of front fenders have been made. I'll see how these perform and later decide whether to make a full chassis cover.

[Juhunio 5748]

So my TA03F-R(ally) is rebuilt!

As detailed in my TA03 build / projects thread, I've left out the torque splitter for now and built the diffs to manual-spec, fairly loose with just some ceramic grease. 

I want to be able to access the front diff as easily as possible so I can tighten it up with AW grease if it needs more traction, so I replaced the front 38mm screw pins with some 41mm shafts from the spares pots so the diff cover can be removed without having to take the whole front end off the chassis

The increased ride height worked out really well, here's a comparison with my TA03F-Pro DJ 

And here she is, ready to go!

Ha! Just noticed that the bokeh effect in that photo has erased the body posts...

[Aerobert 1646]

1 hour ago, Juhunio said:

 

Such a beauty. Hopefully it will not be harmed in hard rally stages.

[Pylon80 330]

On 10/15/2022 at 9:20 PM, OoALEJOoO said:

Managed to finish the car after a marathon build on Saturday:

The chassis got together fairly straightforward. I must say those low-friction dampers are quite a treat, makes me wish Tamiya offered them in a different color instead of pink, but that's just nitpicking. Settled with a set of MST LTX Rally tires instead of the kit's rally blocks as it is intended for tarmac rally events. It would be great to mimic the tarmac stages at Spain, Japan and Germany of the Colin McRae 04 and 2005 video games!

For the moment just a pair of front fenders have been made. I'll see how these perform and later decide whether to make a full chassis cover.

Took me a while to figure out which end was front and which was rear

I guess you're expecting to get hit from behind with that extra bumper!

I use CC-01 shocks with "regular" rally springs. I kind of started liking the gold color! I had to do attach them to the lower hole in the arms though which exposes them more when driving off road (the front ones really) but it's been working really well and the suspension is very smooth.